First of all I'd like to say how happy I am to have discovered this forum. There seems to be a lot of like-minded people here and I wish you all the best in your goals!

So, I'm putting together a CKD training cycle with the aims of achieving a gradual bulk. Before you jump in with the keto diet isn't ideal for bulking, I fully understand there are better methods to bulk, however I don't believe there are better methods for my goals.

After doing a lot of studying regarding the ideal human diet and nutrition, and following a period of paleo, after a lot of reading and preparation, I decided to give the ketogenic diet a try. I was a little skeptical at first, but I noticed I had extended energy levels, better moods, all the general positive side-effects people seem to note with ketosis, except they seem quite pronounced with me. As a result, I've been on a keto diet for more or less two years with one period of carb introduction in the first year to compare the new diet to the old diet.

Recently, I've been on a TKD, taking 30g carbs prior to my lifting workouts. When the workouts got more tough, I experimented with upping the carbs. Everything went better. Now I am at 50g carbs pre-workout and I find the training is going well but I do not seem to be benefiting as much from boosted mood and energy levels outside the gym as I was during the SKD. I have even tried splitting my carbs pre and post workout.

For this reason, I'd like to try a CKD, performing a clean (not just an excuse to eat junk food) carb load from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, training my regular split on Monday and Tuesday, performing a depletion workout on the Friday. I'm able to manage my macros well, and I'm familiar with the science of glycogen depletion, etc. and I've also got experience with performing higher rep metabolic depletion workouts, so I feel confident knowing my own body, knowing when my glycogen stores are sufficiently depleted and I'm not just training myself to failure.

My question is regarding the nature of the depletion workout. Although only touched upon in The Ketogenic Diet, since the book seems to focus more on keto for fat loss (reasonable, since there are far better ways than CKD to bulk) Lyle mentions using a tension workout as the depletion workout (higher weight, lower reps.) The same sort of tension workout is also cited in UD 2.0. Although I have read UD 2.0, I am not interested in following the diet as it is presented. I would prefer to divide my usual high intensity split between Monday and Tuesday, with Tuesday being slightly lower in terms of workload (I use standard progressive overload for squats on Monday between the 12-20 rep range and the same overload for upper body exercises between 8-12 rep ranges) and have one depletion workout Friday (between 4-6 rep ranges) to create a greater anabolic response during the carb-up phase as opposed to the higher rep metabolic depletion workout.

Like I say, I am comfortable with the numbers, with planning a workout schedule to deplete the necessary amount of glycogen through the week, but I'd like to know whether or not I am correct in the assumption that a high tension workout would deplete muscle glycogen the same as a metabolic high rep workout whilst also giving anabolic boost. I recover quickly, so I have no real problem (other than a little soreness) doing a high intensity full-body workout on a Friday followed by another high intensity workout Monday and slightly lighter intensity Tuesday.

If it's true that a high tension workout could sufficiently deplete muscle glycogen stores, it seems I'd be able to keep the same intense workouts I am doing at the moment, maybe even increasing intensity, allowing me to get into ketosis for longer during the week, spending at least Wednesday, Thursday and some of Friday in ketosis. During these days, I will not eat at a deficit. I do not want to lose weight. I am simply happy with the benefits I've experience on a keto diet, and if maintaining those benefits means bulking at a slower pace, I will happily do so.

I know I'll be able to enter keto quickly after the carb-up. Following Tuesday's training, I plan on fasting from 6pm Tuesday until 2pm Wednesday, performing a two hour cycle on Wednesday morning at about 70% max heart rate. I've found that when I left keto during the first year of the diet by introducing more carbs, I could get back into a good ketogenic state by fasting followed by cycling.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR

I want to put together a CKD. Would like to know whether a high tension depletion workout pre carb-up would be more suitable for mass gain than a high rep low tension depletion workout.